PLANO B CROSSING THE U.S. TRYING TO BUILD AN ALTERNATIVE IDEA OF PROGRESS... WOULD YOU GIVE US A HAND?
CHECK OUT THE SIAMESE BLOG SONGLINE-THE DIARY WHERE THINGS ARE POSTED AS THEY ARE HAPPENING

The idea of progress has been intertwined, since the 19th century, to the quest of the american colonizers towards the west. The coincidence of that movement, with an astounding economical growth and technological development, has made possible the perception of progress as a linear, one-way path.

In the field of architecture, progress has been made visible through the replacement of ancient building techniques by others that make use of industrially transformed materials, such as reinforced concrete, plastics or steel, and which have made possible the high-rise sprawl.

The U turn, so to speak, and the resulting impact against the WTC on September 11, of two airplanes on their way to the west, symbolically attacked the linear narrative behind the idea of progress. The present demonstration of the fragilities of the capitalist model, as well as the expectation brought about by the change in the US presidency, makes it interesting to engage in a critical westward trip.

The voyage that we propose is related to an existing commitment that the office Plano B has in May, to coordinate a rammed earth workshop in El Rito, New Mexico. To that workshop we propose to add another 5 along a defined (but not definitive) route: NY, Chicago, Washington, Auburn, El Rito, and San Francisco.

At each workshop words from a secret sentence will be constructed taken from the book "Pessimism: Philosophy, Ethic, Spirit" by Joshua Foa Dienstag. The sentence we have chosen to build, proposes an alternative perception of the idea of progress. Without denying that the concept of progress is intrinsic to a technology driven civilization, the sentence appeals nevertheless for a reduction in the expectation that progress might provide hope for an imperfect, biological and finite species.

The words will be constructed with the materials, the techniques and the volunteers available at each time. The words will be recorded in some medium, posted on an internet blog in their correct relative position in the sentence, but in the random sequence in which they are produced.

This is the blog where the disclosure of the sentence will take place.

MUST


After 5 days of hard work we finally managed to finish the word Must. On Saturday rained a bit in El Rito but the walls were protected on time.
The walls aren't protected against the rain so ultimately they will dissolve (or be demolished).

Thanks to all the participants in the workshop for dispensing so much effort into the construction of the walls.

MUST . 4 .................................................................................

These are some images of the construction of the final wall/letter.







MUST . 3 .................................................................................

At the rammed earth workshop we finished another wall/letter. The original idea was to take the bricks out of the wall and get a void in the shape of a letter, but we will probably let them inside the wall given that the different colors that the bricks have are pretty cool!





MUST . 2 ................................................................................

On the rammed earth front we moved to the second letter/wall trying a different mixture of earth. Part of the corner collapsed as we removed the form, so we'll try changing the mixture again for the next wall:





MUST . 1 .................................................................................

After New Orleans our schedule determined that we would go to New Mexico through Marfa and El Paso and from there up to Albuquerque, Santa Fe and El Rito. Given that we were supposed to be in El Rito in time to start the workshops for the Adobe USA 2009 conference we had to decide to shorten the route. After Dallas and Fort Worth we went north towards Santa Fe.


So, we are now in El Rito and have already started the two workshops that we are suppose to instruct. One of the workshops will be directly related to the Songline: it will be the construction of the word must. The second workshop is a colaborative work with Alexis Elton and is also related to the Songline (but without the use of words): it will consist in building a 5 feet (or 1.5 m) tall sphere out of straw, jute and earth that will have embedded grass seeds near the surface.

In the next few days we'll be be posting images of the development of both workshops. So here are some images of the rammed earth workshop: